Moscow Man Sentenced For Attack

Chong S. Cho is still haunted by the look on Curtis Steiner’s face as the Moscow man attacked him and broke his leg.

Cho, a University of Idaho graduate student, said he looked up at Steiner on Nov. 4 and saw a laughing face. Cho, 40, still sees it in his nightmares.

“He didn’t look human, he looked like a beast,” Cho said Friday after 25-year-old Steiner was sentenced to 18 days in jail and ordered to pay $27,000 in restitution on a misdemeanor battery charge.

Steiner kicked him from behind, then stomped on Cho’s left leg at least twice, he said.

And as Steiner was doing this, he was laughing and asking, “Are you Judo? Are you Judo?” Cho said.

Steiner said he didn’t hear Cho say he was hurt. But Cory Weed, a passerby, also heard Cho yelling in pain and heard Steiner respond, “It’s nothing personal, man.”

Steiner testified that the attack was just a stupid prank and Cho’s race had nothing to do with it.

“You may think it was a prank, but that’s not what anybody in this room thinks,” Magistrate William Hamlett said. “You went looking for someone to knock down. You were being predatory.”